Overall, Tiger Woods 10 is a refreshing golf experience, especially in career and online modes. Frequenters of the franchise will be very happy with the tweaks and new features, while newcomers will find enough to grab ahold of and become fans. It is by all means worth a purchase to sports gamers and a rent to those interested in playing a few rounds.

Game Details			Loading Reality Scoring
Format	Xbox 360 (all 360 reviews)		Score Meaning: Very good. Most gamers, regardless of genre preference, will be able to look past small issues and enjoy the numerous positive qualities. If a "final score," the game is probably worth owning.
Publisher	Electronic Arts
Developer	EA Tiburon
Category	Sports		Presentation
ESRB	E		Gameplay
Online Players	4		Graphics
Offline Players	4		Sound
Price	59.99		Value Factor
Release Date	June 8, 2009		Final Score

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10

The Tiger Woods PGA Tour franchise, like most of EA Tiburon's, has seen its ups and downs over the last 10 years. The middle of this decade brought the lowest in quality, arguably between 2006 and 2008. Tiger Woods 2009 turned the corner and did better than par for the course. The most recent installment, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10, needed only to replicate its predecessor with shinier golf shows to sell well and be the top golf game in existence. Fortunately for the casual and hardcore golf gamers alike, EA Tiburon did much more with the title.

Although the core gameplay and systems behind the games are similar, Tiger Woods 10 has several minor and a few major improvements over 2009. Firstly, putting has become something to genuinely look forward to on the links. No longer do golfers have the need to carry thirty-six different putters (although that option is still available via menus). The new putting system is titled Precision Putting and works incredibly well. Learning to read the greens is much more important than before. Factors ranging from wind, rain, green speed, undulations and green tilts now need to be considered for nearly all putts. A putt preview is included with the new system, as well, although it can only be viewed a single time per putt. Skilled golfers will notice than after 5-10 rounds, they are able to reasonably place the estimate for the putt. Once viewing the putt preview, the shot can be tweaked for precision. Once players learn to allow the fly-through of the course to play in full at the beginning of each hole, they will quickly learn that it is well worth the time. A portion of the fly-through is dedicated to recommending placement of approach shots into the green. For example, if the green is sloping left-to-right, it is much better to shoot for right of the hole, as increasing power for the hill is much easier than compensating for a quickly dropping elevation.

While discussing the fly-through, it's important to mention the commentators that deliver the overview of each hole. Joined by Kelly Tilghman (from the Golf Channel), Scott Van Pelt lends his well-known voice to Tiger Woods 10. The commentary is, for the greatest part, fresh and well-done. Once players reach half-way into a full PGA season, they will have heard all of Van Pelt's quips and the commentary will recycle itself. SVP's comments included, the audio is very good for a sports title. Added this year are outbursts and cheering from the crowds surrounding each hole. Onlookers will chant golfers' names and nicknames as they send their balls into flight, some raising themselves into yelling when that Eagle putt drops.

Sinking Eagle putts can become easier with the enhancements to created players. Skill-boosting clothing and equipment can be purchased in two ways: in-game prize money and Microsoft Points. As the industry continues its crawl towards micro-transactions, EA presses on. I am first to admit that I spent the 400MSP required to purchase the Greenskeeper outfit, as worn by Bill Murray in Caddyshack. It boosts all skills to the max level and is otherwise seventy billion dollars. Give or take. Impatient players will enjoy this feature, as well.

Once players have outfitted their golfers to their liking, they are able to jump into multiple game modes. EA Sports Live Tournaments are a huge step for the franchise, as well. The tournaments provide daily or weekly competitions for created golfers. Live Tournaments have a “Play the Pros” feature that puts gamers up against current PGA Tour scores. It's quite fun, as well as interesting, to see how one would pair against the professionals. To get an even more true sense of this, there are several options in Tiger Woods 10 that allow for more “tour authentic” play.

Another fun new feature is the live weather provided by The Weather Channel. Selecting to play with live weather conditions will mirror current conditions in the area of the course – if it's raining in Pennsylvania, it's raining in Oakmont.

For all of the many, small upgrades, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 doesn't deliver a big change in visuals. Tiger Woods is immaculately modeled and animated. The other characters (including player-created) do not look much improved from last year, however. Also, while the environment improvements are slightly noticeable, the audience is stale and reminiscent of Tiger Woods 2004, graphically.

4 / 5

Written by :

cakeytaste

 

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